The twins are 13 months old and weigh 15 kilogrammes, and are in good health. Because their development indexes are the same as healthy children, doctors said the surgery was now safe to perform. 

Doctors said they would perform additional operations on the children, including plastic surgery.

Professor Trần Đông A, 79, is one of nine key doctors performing the operation. He said the chances of the children making a full recovery was very positive thanks to advanced surgical techniques and equipment.

Doctors have prepared scenarios and predicted risks since June 2019 when the twins were born, he said.

Doctors have successfully separated conjoined twins at the City Children’s Hospital in HCM City. — Photo courtesy of the City Children’s Hospital

Professor A successfully performed an operation to separate Vietnamese twin boys in 1988.

When the twins were delivered in June last year, the City Children’s Hospital said they were joined at the pelvis and all four lower extremities were present and oriented at right angles to the axis of the common trunk. The twins, who weighed 3.2kg at the time, were then brought to the City Children’s Hospital.

Last year, when the woman's pregnancy reached 16 weeks, doctors detected that the twins shared one umbilical cord. At 33 weeks, doctors decided to operate and deliver the twins.

The rate of conjoined twins worldwide is 1 per 200,000 live births. Among the rate, only 6 per cent are classified as ischiopagus tetrapus conjoined twins, which means they were joined at the pelvis.

Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc and acting minister of heath Nguyễn Thanh Long on Wednesday evening sent a special congratulation message to the team of doctors who carried out the surgery and at the same time passed on their best wishes to the two baby sisters. — VNS

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